1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to interactive computer and video games and, in particular, to the creation and control of advertisements within.
2. Description of Related Art
As the computer and video games evolved in the last few years, more and more games have integrated brand advertisements into the worlds they have built. Drivers in race car simulators can see ads next to the race track, soccer and basketball players play in fields surrounded by ads, game characters wear fashion garments of known brands and players of the popular “the Sims” game can buy their food at McDonalds™.
Up to this point, each game developer integrated ads and products at the time of creation, with game publishers and business development people bringing the advertisers. Unlike the on-line market, there are no central aggregators or providers of ads for the games. What is needed is a solution that allows different publishers and developers to easily add ads into their games, without the need to handle the business around it.
In addition, once the ads are integrated within the game, they are fixed and cannot be changed throughout the lifecycle of the game. Furthermore, because the game development process itself could take two years or more, the advertisements need to be determined long before they are seen by the target audience. As a result the lack of ability to change the ad's content as time passes significantly reduces the effectiveness of games as an advertising medium. This is due to what is known as “Ad wear-out”—a term describing the phenomenon where the effectiveness of advertising on a viewer diminishes after a certain small number of exposures. These issues limit the scope of potential advertisers to only a select group of well-known international mega-brands, such as Coca Cola™ or Nike™, who use the medium for brand awareness and not direct advertising. Thus, there is a need for the ability to change and add advertising after the creation of the interactive game program.
Furthermore, currently there is no mechanism to accurately track the actual exposure to the advertisement. Hence, there is no systematic metric that can be used by advertisers and publishers to gauge the effectiveness of ad campaigns, and therefore, no way to determine pricing systematically. As a result, existing advertising deals in interactive games are based on “gut feelings”.
An additional problem with current game advertising solutions is the incompatibility of media types between the game world and the advertising world. Online advertising uses gif and jpeg formats for images and Flash format for rich media animations. Flash and jpeg formats are not typically supported by games, which requires advertisers to adapt their content and creation processes at an increased cost.
Therefore, there is a need for a solution that will allow game developers, game publishers, and advertisers create and update advertisements within an interactive video game. Furthermore, the solution must be able to track ad effectiveness, and allow advertisers to change the advertisements accordingly. In addition, the solution must allow current online advertising formats, such as but not limited to gif, jpeg, and Flash format, to be incorporated into the video games. As a result, the enabling technology will turn the explosive game market into an effective streamlined advertising medium.